Training canines go to school, educate dogs and kids

Pre-kindergartner Andrew Berkman gets a warm greeting from Narita, who is part of the Guide Dog for the Blind training program at Sumac Elementary School in Agoura Hills. The dog will accompany Principal Carol Martino throughout the school year as children become accustomed to a working dog and Narita gets her socialization skills down, including not licking people while on the job.

Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff

Alice Garcia, nurse for Sumac School in Agoura Hills, gets Tally ready for a walk. Garcia is training the 4-month-old black Labrador for Guide Dogs for the Blind. School Principal Carol Martino also has a puppy in the program that goes to work with her.

Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff

Carol Martino, principal of Sumac School in Agoura Hills, introduces Narita to Linda Jacobs’ kindergarten class. School nurse Alice Garcia also has a Labrador retriever puppy in the program that she takes to work.

Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff

Narita, a 4-month-old Guide Dog for the Blind in training, and Linda Jacobs’ kindergarten class meet each other on the second day of class at Sumac School in Agoura Hills. Narita’s caretaker, Principal Carol Martino, and school nurse Alice Garcia both train puppies for the agency. They bring their dogs to work, an exercise that benefits the dogs’ socialization skills.

Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff

While the 500 students at Sumac School in Agoura Hills said their goodbyes to parents and hellos to their new teachers on the second day of school Thursday, Principal Carol Martino made sure one particular new student had her supplies in order.

"She has her water bowl, a few chew toys and her vest," said Martino. "We also have little baggies for her ‘leftovers.' Her little emergency bag is her backpack."

Student 501 at Sumac School is Narita, a 4-month-old yellow Labrador and trainee for Guide Dogs for the Blind. The organization places puppies with foster parents like Martino before the animals undergo intensive training to become service dogs.

Over the past four years, the puppies have become a familiar sight at various schools in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, thanks to school nurse Alice Garcia, who has helped raise puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind for seven years.

This year, a total of three staff members and administrators have become foster puppy parents, including Garcia, Martino and Agoura Hills High School teacher Kim Ellis.

Garcia's latest puppy, 16-week-old Tally, is her seventh guide dog in training. This is the first year for Martino and her husband, Gary, who are helping to raise Narita. Ellis is also a first-time foster puppy parent, to Cole, a black Lab.

"The main part of our job is socializing the puppies ... to be around different people, noises and activities, and be able to remain calm and behave," Garcia said.

Garcia was fostering her fourth puppy, Garfield, when she was interviewed for the position of school nurse four years ago. She belongs to a local chapter of Guide Dogs for the Blind, which meets twice a month in Thousand Oaks.

During her interview with school district officials, Garcia brought Garfield. Although the well-behaved dog slept through most of the interview, Garcia said, she told administrators she had one condition before she was hired.

"That was a part of my negotiation that they would allow me to bring my guide dog to campuses," Garcia said.

Guide Dogs for the Blind, based in San Rafael, has a breeding program and to date has graduated more than 10,000 human-canine teams since it was founded in 1942. The organization breeds and uses Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers and mixes of the two.

Foster families get the pups at about 3 months old. The puppies usually stay with the foster owner for 14 to 16 months.

Garcia, Martino and Ellis are in charge of not only socializing the animals, but also setting the groundwork for good behavior — no chasing balls or jumping on couches or people, Martino said.

Volunteer foster parents must join a local chapter of the organization and prove they have a "secure living environment" for the animal. They also must be committed to attend training sessions and provide the pups with plenty of daily exercise.

Because Garcia is a nurse who must travel from one campus to another, Tally gets to tag along. On a typical day, Tally sits quietly in a corner with her vest and harness while Garcia attends to students' needs. When Garcia needs to visit a student in a classroom to administer medication, Tally is right there with her and sits patiently.

On Thursday, Narita visited most of the classrooms at Sumac School and gave plenty of wet kisses to students who wanted to pet the rambunctious yellow Lab.

As Narita received belly rubs from the excited youngsters, Martino explained to the students why the pup was wearing her green Guide Dogs vest. Narita is a student just like them, Martino explained to a group of kindergartners.

Schools are a perfect training ground, Garcia said.

"On campus, particularly in the elementary school with the kids running around that's something good for them to learn to remain calm, even with the kids running up to greet them," Garcia said. "It's an education for the students, staff as well as for the dog. The kids actually learn etiquette in working with the service dog.

"We teach the kids they have to wait until the dogs are seated before they can pet them and that the dog is actually working. When we are walking into the classrooms, during those times the dogs cannot be petted."

The dogs eventually leave their foster parents, return to a Guide Dogs for the Blind facility and are paired with volunteer trainers, who teach them to lead, obey, avoid distractions and disobey commands that would put the team in danger.

Because of the organization's rigorous standards, only about 50 percent of the canines actually graduate to become guide dogs.

"We look at it as sending your child to college," Garcia said of when the dogs leave their foster parents. "You are very excited that they are going on to their next phase, even though you miss them and you hope they will be successful and graduate and be a working dog."